Life is a series of waves to be embraced and overcome.
Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.
At the base level, a burger is a piece of meat and a bun with something on it. It's simple but it seems to make a lot of people happy.
Constant, gentle pressure is my preferred technique for leadership, guidance, and coaching.
A cocktail done right can really show your guests that you care.
You wouldn't have the same art on the walls at every restaurant or the same waiter uniforms. Neither should you have the same service style at every restaurant.
The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.
Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It's all about hiring the right people.
Festive cocktails mean color, lots of color.
Union Square Cafe is all soul, not brain.
A great restaurant is one that just makes you feel like you're not sure whether you went out or you came home and confuses you. If it can do both of those things at the same time, you're hooked.
Steak and its accompaniments - wine, vegetables, potatoes and generous desserts - is a primal source of pleasure to which many people can relate.
Hospitality exists when you believe that the other person is on your side.
A great restaurant doesn't distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes but by how well they handle those mistakes.
One great worker equals three not-so-great workers, so it's worth paying terrific people not just for today but to find people that we think have upward mobility to become tomorrow's leaders.
It's the job of any business owner to be clear about the company's nonnegotiable core values. They're the riverbanks that help guide us as we refine and improve on performance and excellence. A lack of riverbanks creates estuaries and cloudy waters that are confusing to navigate. I want a crystal-clear, swiftly flowing stream.
Hospitality knows no gender or race.
If you develop a dialogue with me and take an interest in me, I'll want to give you the business. It's human nature.
I opened Union Square Cafe when I was just 27 years old, and my first hope was simply that it would stay in business. My higher hope was that in its lifetime, it might grow to play an essential role in the lives of its stakeholders.
Human nature doesn't change. When enough people are comfortable enough financially, there is going to be human nature that wants to spend more money on better quality and, to some degree, status symbols as well.
